The Queen Must Die

Illustrations by Pamela Johnson

"Why is it that insects often inspire such good writing? You think of Jean Henri Fabre, William Morton Wheeler, you think of Howard Evans' Wasp Farm. To these classics we must now add The Queen Must Die, an altogether pleasing ethnography of the beehive." —Jake Page

"A very fine book indeed. . . . Longgood's Thoreauvian patience and powers of observation . . . make The Queen Must Die a special book." —James Kauffman, Christian Science Monitor

"Longgood's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious. He supplies a fund of unfamiliar information about a changeless civilization buzzing about its business just outside our attention." —Walter Clemons, Newsweek

"The remarkable complex social order of bees leads the least speculative to speculate, and Longgood's speculations, leavened with quiet wit, are of a high order of stylish imagination." —Los Angeles Times

"A beautiful book about one of nature's most industrious, 'work-or-die' insects. . . . Fascinating reading." —Rocky Mountain News